The North has been at the centre of a large amount of UFO activity, including one of the most famous and credible sightings - and a well known hoax.

The former took place on September 19, 1952, during Operation Mainbrace, a huge NATO exercise involving 85,000 personnel from the armed forces of Europe and North America to show its might to the Soviet Union.

As part of it, an Irish squadron was posted to RAF Topcliffe in North Yorkshire. The incident - which last barely 20 seconds, - occurred as they watched a Meteor jet fighter returning to base. The following day Flight Lieutenant John Kilburn wrote a report based on the sighting witnessed by him and four colleagues.

He said as the fighter descended they noticed an object in the sky flying at 10 to 20,000 feet some five miles behind the Meteor. The object was silver and circular and appeared to be travelling much slower than the fighter but on the same course.

Flt Lt Kilburn described how it began to descend, swinging in a “pendular motion”, similar to a “falling sycamore leaf”.

At first they thought it was a parachute, then the Meteor turned towards Dishforth and the object followed but after a few seconds stopped its pendulous motion and descent and then began to rotate on its axis.

“The movements of the object were not identifiable with anything I have seen in the air and the rate of acceleration was unbelievable”.

There were several other sightings at that time and, reportedly, a radar confirmation of the incident. Copies of the report were forwarded to the Government and it caused a media storm.

As did the second incident which took place two years later in Cumbria.

It took place near the village of Torver in the Lake District of Cumbria, England and involved a couple of lads, aged 13 and eight.

They had gone on a walk to a place overlooking the ‘Old Man of Coniston’ taking with them a period Kodak box camera.

The older boy claimed he felt “an unusual urge” to keep climbing the hill then they noticed a UFO.

They then took two, slightly out-of -focus, photographs.

One of their dads told them to write a report and draw a sketch of what they’d seen.

The photos were developed and seemed to show an usual craft with portholes and bulbous projections suspended beneath it.

Meanwhile the dad notified the newspapers and the boys became overnight celebrities, even being interviewed by the private secretary of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

They later revealed it was all a hoax.

Over the years there have been many reports in the region of mysterious flashing lights, weird and wonderfully shaped craft.

All these episodes have been exhaustively documented.

The reports come from people from all walks of life, ordinary members of the public, the police force, the army . . . and even a priest.

Another well known tale - and certainly one of the most entertaining - is that of the Gateshead Grey when an Alien got more than he/she/it bargained for when it tried to a abduct a Geordie lad.

The boy has described how in 1940, when he was aged five, he had been on Saltwell Road in the Bensham area of Gateshead with a pal watching soldiers march past before going off to then returning to his home in Hedley Street.

He said on the way he was confronted by an “egg-shaped” craft surrounded by “bright light”.

The lad said he then saw three strange-shaped creatures ranging from 2ft to 4ft tall, all grey in colour, one looked like Big Foot while another had long flowing hair and a coat that partially covered a skeletal body and bat wings.

He claimed they spoke to him in perfect English and asked to examine him and took blood out of his neck.

The whole episode, according to his tale, lasted about 20 minutes before he was allowed to go.

When he told his parents, they thought he was kidding.

The next day, the lad said two men with black suits came to the house and warned him that if he said anything, he would disappear.

A few days later he said an alien tried to snatch him off the street.

He stumbled trying to get away but said his uncle saw what was happening and smacked it in the head with a shovel and killed.

According to the story it was put in a sack and taken to a local church where it was later taken away by the army and those who knew about the episode warned not to talk about it.

Over the years, the lad has occasionally - and a bit reluctantly - stuck his head over the parapet to talk about it fearing the ridicule he will receive in some quarters but is adamant it happened.

Recently released Ministry of Defence documents about thousands of UFO sightings between 1965 and 2008 include some fascinating ones from the region - including one about four North-East police officers spotting a UFO while on a dog training exercise.

The sighting occurred in Wear Bank Road, between Wolsingham and Hamsterley, in County Durham, in September 2005.

The report describes the UFO as being a three-dimensional diamond shape, similar in size to a large helicopter, with green lights on either side.

There was a red and white light on the centre of its body.

The officers from the Durham Police force, who were on duty at the time and about to commence the dog training exercise saw the object, which reportedly stayed on scene for about two minutes.

It moved slowly northwards when lights from a car were shone in its direction.

The report states: “It was sighted above the field adjacent to the road.

“No sound was heard. There were clear skies.

“It was reported to Durham Police’s air support unit and Durham and Tees Valley Airport.”

The officers were not named in the file and it states the MoD was unable to reply as there was no address included by whoever submitted the report.

A spokesman for Durham Constabulary said later their protocol for reports of any such sightings is to refer them to the RAF search and rescue and air traffic control in case it is an aircraft in distress.

Recorded activity in the North East

1942 Squaddie Albert Lancashire, 27, was on sentry duty near Newbiggin-by-the-Sea when he was zapped by a yellow light. He passed out and was overcome with a “floating sensation”. Two decades later he regained his memories of the events, and claimed to have walked up a beam of light and been taken aboard a craft by a pygmy-sized man.

1954 Mr W Brewis, a chemist and amateur astronomer, of Elderwood Gardens, Lobley Hill, Gateshead, who had watched the sky for years hoping to catch sight of a flying saucer, said he saw a formation of them flying “faster than jet planes” over Tyneside. Two of his colleagues saw them, too, from the laboratory of a Pelaw paint works.

1963 At 3.30am a father and daughter were driving home to Alnmouth from Leicester when they were suddenly aware of a huge, glowing object about 100ft above their car. Terrified, they screeched to a halt and sat clinging to each other as searchlight-like beams swept over them. The daughter just managed to make out porthole-style windows in the object before it shot off at a staggering speed towards the North Sea.

October 21, 1967: A member of the public reported seeing a UFO to a policeman. The policeman visited them and also witnessed it.

He said: “The sighting was of three triangular objects which were extremely bright to look at. They were visible for around half an hour. They were seen above the Tyne Dock in South Shields.”

1971 Dorothy Elsey could not believe her eyes when what she first thought was a plane crashing down to earth started hovering motionless above Alnwick Castle.

The object stood out against the deep blue night sky, a huge black cigar-shaped object surrounded by a luminous green glow.

1976 Doll-like figures were spotted in Fence Housescorrect, Houghton-le-Spring, in September 1976.

Two women spotted “large dolls” after encountering a small oval-shaped object. The “dolls” had long white hair, parted down the middle, and large round eyes.

1978 A 21-year-old Killingworth nurse reported seeing a cigar-shaped object from a distance of only a few feet as it glided between houses and then rose towards nearby flats.

1980 Design engineer Les Balsdon was among hundreds of people who spotted UFO activity in the region at the same time. He and his two young sons were walking near their Ashington home when they saw four or five objects, described as cigar-shaped with tails which glowed, moving in formation through the clouds.

1982 In March two Northumbria police officers saw a UFO hover over the Tyne Valley for more than an hour.

1982 New Year’s Day - Wallsend photographer Wendy Garratt reported seeing a mysterious flying object 10 to 15 times larger than a star which could be seen quite clearly.

1985 October, suspicions of activity were also raised at Newcastle International Airport. An air traffic controller and his assistant were spooked after spotting two objects in the sky above the airfield. The report reads: “Two objects observed by their lights, one bright and one dimmer.” The suspected UFO was also reported by someone outside the terminal airport, as well as a pilot flying six miles north of the airport in a light aircraft.

1987 A night security guard in Newcastle was baffled by a white lights hovering over the city. On June 30 he alerted RAF Boulmer to the flying saucer sighting, which he said lasted 15 to 20 minutes. The former member of the armed forces wrote: “A large, white light was travelling west to east. The other five lights travelled in various directions.”

1987 Meanwhile, three terrified Gosforth residents made separate reports of a green object in the sky above Newcastle in the same year, on March 6. One looked out of his window and was shocked to see what he described as a pale, bright, green object.

Then a third report came from a Gosforth resident, who made the sighting while outdoors in Longbenton. He saw a green sphere for five minutes and immediately alerted the police.

1988 September, Washington – four people reported seeing an object in the sky, which split into three circular parts of about 10 feet in diameter, according to government documents. The shapes changed colour from bright white to yellow. One of the discs moved north and changed into a ‘Z’ shape as the second disc appeared and followed the first shape. The third disc then moved in a westerly direction at very high speed.

1997 September, switchboards were jammed by callers who spotted a fireball hurtling over Alnwick, Northumberland. The British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, which has seismometers planted at 40 mile intervals across Britain, reported the fireballs had broken the sound barrier.

1997 A Northumberland man witnesses a “flying triangle” over Howick at around 6pm. It flies slowly in the direction of RAF Boulmer. On the same evening, a couple on Alnwick Moor independently report the same object 10 minutes earlier.

2000 A UFO is spotted over Wearside. Witnesses describe it as “silvery grey in colour, very flat, pear-shaped and about four to five feet long”. Newcastle Airport officials are alerted after a sighting three hours later above Penshaw Monument, near Washington.

2004 A Gateshead clergyman took a photograph of a mystery object in Blaydon.

“I woke with nature calling at around 2.15am,” he said. “When I walked out on to the landing the light was quite bright, most unusual for that time and in our area as there are no main roads, nor are there many outside lights.

“I looked into the sky to see what I could only describe as something rather odd.

“I went rather swiftly to the bedroom to pick up my mobile phone, unfortunately this was the only means of taking a photograph I had.

“I took two pictures of the light before it disappeared.

“It was hovering from left to right, and was extremely smooth, yet somewhat slow, the manner in which it disappeared was quite strange, it just turned off as if it was still there, but hidden.”

2005 A pilot’s close encounter with a UFO off the coast of Northumberland was revealed in long-hidden military files. Released reports said in July 1977, Flight Lieutenant AM Wood of RAF Boulmer reported seeing “bright objects hanging over the sea” including an object that was “luminous, round and four to five times larger than a Whirlwind helicopter”.

2006 A blurry picture taken on the North East coast, got American UFO spotters in a spin. Keith Saint, 38, of Maple Street, Ashington, Northumberland, was snapping the sky at Tynemouth pier when he discovered more than a sunset in his viewfinder.

The picture appeared on websites across the world and one theory was that Keith had snapped the Mantra Stealth aircraft – a mystery aircraft which can supposedly hover silently at 125,000ft, but whose existence is denied by the US military.

2008 Peter Jackson, a 30-year-old gardener who lived near Morpeth, Northumberland contacted our sister paper The Journal after seeing 15 unidentified flying objects while enjoying a barbecue with his family on Saturday night. But the sightings were later dismissed as Chinese lanterns.